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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

New Shop Accessory

Dust collection is always a concern and consideration when working with wood. My shop is pretty rudimentary - band saw and thickness planer are on castors for flexibility - and the shop-vac rolls around as needed.

I have sort of coveted fancy dust collection systems even while realizing a fancy system is more than I need or can justify. Over the years I've seen the Dust Duputy cyclone separator (a plastic fitting to install on a 5-gal bucket which serves to make a shop-vac a two-stage vacuum) but never went ahead with getting one. Recently, on various small boat internet forums, I have seen posts for making your own cyclone separator patterned after the Dust Deputy. Frankly, this sort of DIY projects are fascinating but often impractical for me. So, early this week I searched Amazon for the Dust Deputy by Oneida. Dust Deputy by Oneida. Okay, $40 and a little finagling to fit it to the top of a 5-gal bucket. I almost ordered one…

It arrived today and, like a kid on Christmas morning, I ripped open the box and hooked it up. This thing flat out WORKS! The dust and bits vacuumed up fell into the 5-gal bucket, not the shop-vac. This will help prolong the life of the filter, to say nothing of how much easier it is to empty a 5-gal bucket than the shop-vac. Of course, the Dust Deputy might be twice as effective - but I'll never know because I'm pleased with this product and recommend it if you are using just a shop-vac for dust collection in your shop. (The usual disclaimers apply - I have no financial interest in this product. I am a happy customer.)
Oh, and by the way, I installed another piece of planking today and the planking of Gardens is now past the half-way point.